potential cooking-optional foods

[Bill Segraves]

While trying to decide whether I wanted to start a cook-fire in the rain recently, I started wondering whether I really needed to cook (i.e., rehydrate in boiling water) some of the options in my food bag:

1) Honeyville sausage crumbles. It says they're fully cooked, so do I really need to rehydrate it in hot water before I eat it? Tasted good, actually. I think I like it better than jerky.

2) Bob's Red Mill Golden Couscous. Says it's been parboiled. 45 minutes in cool water and it tasted and had texture pretty much like cold couscous.

3) Instant Mashed Potatoes. Are those potatoes cooked before they're turned into powder? I don't know. And do any of the conditions that can make raw potatoes unhealthy to eat apply to the instant ones?

Experience or opinions with these other foods that are normally cooked but may not necessarily need to be? Especially starchy foods like potatoes and couscous that can fill those niches in the menu? I use lots of crushed corn chips but it's good to have some variety. (Crackers I've tried can be good on weight but are not great on volume.)

Thanks!

Cheers,

Bill S.

[Nick Smolinske]

Couscous is more or less pre-cooked (at least, the stuff in grocery stores in the US is – the real deal might be different). Instant mash potatoes are pre-cooked for sure. I've brought the flavored Idahoan ones on stoveless trips before. The flavored ones are better for this, IMO, because you can't melt butter into cold mashed potatoes.

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